Emotional and psychosomatic disorders in general practice

Abstract

The knowledge of the genesis of emotional and psychosomatic illnesses is of paramount importance in medicine. This paper is an attempt to obtain a perspective of the problem as it presents itself to the general practitioner. It consists of (a), a study of the incidence of emotional and psychosomatic illnesses in general practice, and (b) of a study of the causes of such illnesses. 950 cases were studied consecutively in the month of November, 1969 as they attended the office. A case would be classified as psychosomatic on 3 conditions: (1) The condition must belong to one of those listed as possibly psychosomatic. (2) The patient must admit to an emotional disturbance. (3) The emotional disturbance must precede the somatic condition. In this study an attempt was made to trace the relationship between life events and emotional illness. According to this study the catastrophic events are: ill-health in a household member, bereavement, son or daughter leaving home, demotion or loss of a job, menopause, alcoholic spouse, and separation from parents or next of kin.